Social Cohesion

Social cohesion is fundamental to the successful functioning of societies, this is especially so in multi-ethnic and multi-faith societies such as Iraq. A lack of social cohesion can increase tensions among different social groups, increase the likelihood of conflict and undermine trust in the state. 

The following section will tackle social cohesion as an elusive and contested concept, which contains both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The horizontal dimension to social cohesion describes the relations of trust, interactions, and social and economic linkages among people in a society across social divisions such as ethnicity, gender, race or class. 

In contrast, vertical cohesion entails trust between a government and society. This requires citizens’ trust in their politicians, business people and community leaders, robust institutions, and reliable and non-partisan state services, including elections, taxation, legal provisions and budgeting. This section will collate a series of articles, policy papers and debates that explore the politics of ethnicity in Iraq, and forms of non-sectarian cooperation and collaboration.